This invention relates generally to toy cableways and more particularly to a cableway which is mountable against a vertical wall in any desired geometric travel pattern whereby the cars or other toy elements suspended from the driven cable travel in a circuitous path in a plane parallel to the wall surface.
Toy railroads have been popular with children for almost as many years as full scale railroads have been in existence. Such toys are available commercially in a broad range of designs going from relatively simple and inexpensive set-ups to highly elaborate and costly arrangements.
But regardless of their degree of complexity, all toy railways include a trackway usually made up of assembled track sections, some of which are straight and others curved, the trackway being set up on the floor or on a large table in a desired pattern. The train which rides on the trackway is usually composed of a locomotive and one or more cars coupled thereto.
The principal drawback, in practical terms, of existing forms of toy railroads resides in their space requirements. If the toy railroad consists, say, of a simple oval trackway whose long dimension is three feet, then this represents no great problem. But few children are satisfied with so elementary a trackway, for the play possibilities thereof are quickly exhausted.
Hence, the modern tendency is toward larger and more elaborate trackways, some of which occupy almost all of the available floor space in a playroom or wherever else the system is erected. Since a system of this design allows little space for any other play activity, it is generally necessary, after a few hours of play, to dismantle the entire railroad and store it until one again wishes to play, at which time the system must be reassembled.
Apart from these difficulties, a toy railroad installed on the floor of a playroom represents a potential hazard, for it may occupy most of the floor area, and anyone who enters the room is in danger of tripping over the trackway and its associated equipment or of colliding with the train running thereover. And while this factor may not diminish the popularity of such railroads with children, parents are not likely to share their offspring's enthusiasm and may justifiably regard existing toy railroads as a household nuisance.